Understanding Transport Policy and Compliance Agents

Many organizations are obligated by legal, regulatory, or business process requirements to process, filter, modify, and store e-mail messages transferred to and from the organization and the Internet, in addition to internal communications between individuals in the organization. The transport policy and compliance infrastructure of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 provides a set of rules that govern how e-mail messages are stored and processed based on a set of requirements. The following important features help you comply with these legal, regulatory, and business process requirements more easily:

Transport rules agents There are two transport rules agents in Exchange 2010. The Transport Rule agent runs on Hub Transport servers and helps you meet regulatory and corporate policy requirements. The Edge Rule agent runs on the Edge Transport server and helps you protect your organization from unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) and viruses. For more information about transport rules agents and specific scenarios where they might be used, see the following topics:

Journaling agent The Journaling agent helps you configure how Exchange enforces e-mail retention policies on messages sent or received by departments or individuals in your organization, to and from recipients outside your organization, or both.

Important:

In Exchange 2010, the Journaling agent is a built-in agent. Built-in agents aren't included in the list of agents returned by the Get-TranpsortAgent cmdlet. For more details, see Understanding Transport Agents.

For more information about the Journaling agent, journal reports, and journaling in a mixed Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007 organization or in a mixed Exchange 2010 and Exchange Server 2007 organization, see the following topics:

Information Rights Management (IRM) agents There are three IRM agents in Exchange 2010. The Encryption agent IRM-protects messages flagged by the Transport Rule agent on Hub Transport servers. The Pre-licensing agent inserts a use license in messages that are IRM-protected by using the organization's Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) cluster. The Decryption agent decrypts IRM-protected messages to allow other transport agents access to message content, and for including a plaintext copy of the message in journal reports for archival and discovery.

Hosted Archive, which helps them satisfy retention requirements for compliance

Hosted Encryption, which helps them encrypt data to preserve confidentiality

Hosted Continuity, which helps them preserve access to e-mail during and after emergency situations

These services integrate with any on-premises Exchange servers that are managed in-house or Hosted Exchange e-mail services that are offered through service providers. For more information about Exchange Hosted Services, see Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services.